The present invention relates to rotary mowers having flexible wing sections pivotally mounted onto the opposite sides of a center section and more specifically relates to the leading profile presented by the blade housings of the center and wing sections.
Presently there are two basic types of flexible wing rotary cutters, namely, so-called "box-front" and "delta wing" designs. The center and wing cutting sections of a cutter employing the box front design each present a front profile extending perpendicular to the direction of travel, with the center section disposed ahead of the wing sections whereby the combined profiles of the sections is a stepped profile. In contrast to this, the center and wing cutting sections of a cutter employing the delta wing design present a combined profile which is generally v-shaped with the profile being inclined relative to the direction of travel.
Cutters with the box-front profile work very good when traveling straight ahead since the profile will push and bend over crop stems or stalks forwardly allowing the crop to be lifted and cut-off cleanly as it passes beneath the cutter housing. However, in some crop conditions these cutters tend to leave streaks when mowing during turning due to the stems or stalks being bent over sideways by the side skirt/skid shoe structure at the opposite sides of the middle blade housing.
While rotary cutters having the delta wing design is preferred for appearance, material distribution and shielding reasons, the angled front profile tends to push stalks or stems to the side resulting in those stalks and stems at the outer edges of the cutter passing beneath and being held down by the side skirt/skid shoe structures at the outer ends of the wing sections preventing the material from being lifted and cut off. This results in requiring more overlap on the next pass through the field of crop being cut, especially with tall growth, and thus greatly reduces the effective cutting width of the cutter. Furthermore, this design makes it impossible to cut clean along a fence or building.